Winter
by robisonnoel
Summary: If you read my previous stories you'll understand.
1. Chapter 1

It was known as the gauntlet, and in his culture, most certainly meant death. The Winter General had been on the front lines of the war at the outer gates for over a hundred years. He had served Mab well, and had held the gates against all comers. Then he had made a mistake. Well two.

First had been his welcome of the Jade Court into the fray. He had gotten to the point where the battle was mechanical. Survival the only interest, but then he had seen the Jade Court.

They were never meant to survive their first battle, but they did. They returned to the Outer Gates, wreathed in glory. They laughed and held each other in victory. His forces had only entered at the end, but one of the Jade Court archers, a woman, had made a point of finding him and embracing him. Taking him by the hand she had led him back to her yurt and made gentle love to him. Nothing like the elven maidens. Hard and cold. She had slept in his arms, soft and unafraid. He had always been different, and this simple act reminded him of this. The most successful General of the Wall for centuries, he like few of his kind, dreamed of victory.

After that, every battle, he coordinated his forces with the Jade court. He and the Jade General had forged their forces into an anvil that crushed the Outsiders. During the incursion into Montana, they had held against the largest attack in history. The Jade Court's use of modern weapons the deciding factor. Elves had died though, and the Jade court included them in their memorial.

The elves acted like they didn't care, but they did, and the Jade Court gained respect.

He had stood in the way of Mab's vengeance, and had excepted a boon from a rival deity.

Standing with his hands bound behind his back, the boon he had accepted stood shoved into the ground, at the very end of the gauntlet. The blade scorching the earth, with Pele's fire.

Mab, of course, would not attend, but her proxy was puzzling. A human mage more properly called a Warlock. Talon, Pele's knight, stood next to the blade. Which chilled him to the core. The gauntlet was supposed to be survivable, but this man, who even the Leanderside respected, stood at the end. His daughter Cheyanne, and wife Jinn, were Mab's.

The Winter General had seen this man fight, and knew he was merciless, and the only human he had ever feared. It would be an honor to be ended by him, and he vowed to survive the gauntlet of the elves he had commanded, to let this human finish him. At his last breath he would show his elven kindred his distain of them.

To his surprise, the human began walking disdainfully between the assembled elves, reaching over his left shoulder to draw his sabre. Would he just walk up, and hack off my head?

"Turn around", the human said quietly.

The Winter General, looked into the human's eyes, about to disobey, when he saw the human, quite deliberately wink. Turning with his arms outstretched, behind his back. He heard and felt as Talon cut the bounds on his hands. Turning, back his arms free, he heard the elves in the gauntlet hissing.

"Fucking pussies", is all Talon said as he walked away. The elves grew silent as he looked challengingly about.

Pele chuckled at the end of the line. "Begin", she said.

At Pele's unexpected sign of amusement, something inside him chuckled as well. Buxom and beautiful was Pele, and he decided that if he survived the gauntlet, his last act would be to bury his face in her beautiful breasts. He would give these fuckers something to talk about for a thousand years.

Now normally you want to move through the Gauntlet, as quickly as possible, not allowing the blows to land, but the Winter General had other plans. For a hundred years, he had commanded these men. Many of them owed him their lives, but that in the Winter Court was weakness. In a moment of realization, he understood why they had not won.

Walking slowly past the first pair, basically cannon fodder, he stopped to receive the blows. Both elves struck him lightly and bowed to him. In turn, he smiled at them, both would never had survived without his intervention, but their fawning was like the smaller dog licking the ass of the larger.

Next were the veterans. Elves that had been at the wall so long, that they had no hope. There blows were hard. One breaking his collarbone. He nodded in appreciation and showed no fear. One of the veterans reached out and grasped his arm in the warrior's handshake. He learned a new lesson. Then he broke into a run, not just to the end, but to the most dangerous of his troop. His lieutenants, his staff, all vying for his place in Mab's eyes.

The last pair were his sub lieutenants, at the last moment he saw the knife. Welded by his favorite, piercing his abdomen with an enchanted blade.

With his remaining strength, his hand moving in a blur, he collapsed the windpipe of the traitor. Gripping the hand with the knife, he ripped it from his flesh, and buried it in the chest of his last subordinate, who also held a knife, too cowardly to strike, hoping his cohort had finished the job.

Stumbling across the line, his intestines dangling from the wound, he fell to his knees in front of Pele, and rested his head upon her breasts. Awaiting the cleansing fire, something totally unexpected happened. Pele's arms, embraced him, and held him to her bosom. With a sign, his world went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

"Chickeynoodle, you've done some good work here", said the deep male voice. The context eluded him, and then a young girls voice answered.

"Papa, Srey did the heavy lifting, and I've just been holding the line while she rested".

"I've seen your sister heal some pretty incredible wounds. What seems to be the problem"?

"She thinks this one doesn't want to live".

Did I want to live, what was the point? My liege had sentenced me to death, my compatriots had tried to kill me, and I had been fighting a war for over a hundred years. I opened my eyes to see a young girl, and the man called Talon, standing above me.

The one-eyed man looked at me. "My daughters have spent a lot of effort saving your life", he said dispassionately." One of my Jade Court has requested that you live. A request that I do not take lightly because your intervention had saved many of their lives. I have no love for your kind, but no hate as well".

I lay there thinking about that, the Jade Court had revitalized my commitment to ending the Outsiders.

Drawing his sabre, Talon looked at me. "I will end you now, if you wish, but I have no time to play with you. Either you will be an ally, or not."

Ally, the word didn't register. I had always been Winter's minion. Even as a child we had been taught to destroy, our Queen fighting the most devastating foe in history.

"Papa, do you always have to be such an asshole", said a young, beautiful Asian girl entering the room.

"Srey, we have to know", the man said.

"Papa, I saved his life he belongs to me", she said quietly.

"Mab, may not approve", Talon says.

"Then she needs to talk to Pele, because it was her decision", the one called Srey says. "Pele said that if I saved him, that he was mine".

I didn't have much strength, but this I could not allow. "I belong to no one. Let the blade fall". Which was a mistake. For a moment the young lady slipped, and her power unleashed. I saw the darkness, and felt the draw, as she began to eat my soul. Her eyes, for just an instant, were black on black.

Almost as quickly as it happened, it was flooded by a golden light. The one known as Cheyanne sat quietly shaking her head. "Sister behave", she said.

The young Asian girl approached the bed. "Winter General do you know me", she said quietly. "My people, The Jade, were under sentence of death. They had no hope. Before you. For that I owe you a debt, but do not believe that is all. I know what kind of creature you are. I love my Auntie Mab, but she is relentless. The fucking powers of this world have left her, and Winter, to combat a threat that could end reality."

Cheyanne, gently placing her hand on my brow spoke. " The fact that I am alive, speaks to the relentlessness of the assault. I will tell you in confidence, that your liege was this close". She placed her hands disturbingly close together. "This close, to using powers, that not only would have defeated the threat, but destroyed reality as well".

I looked questionably at a being, most likely as powerful as my liege, and nodded my head.

"One of my subjects, the lady Lauren, has asked me for your life. It seems as though she is pregnant with your child."

My world exploded. Child? Me with a child? Before the Jade court lady had led me away. I had not even contemplated the possibility that I would ever have such.

"My Jade court ladies are hyper fertile, but I am not displeased that she chooses you", Srey said. " She will meet you, and together she wants to raise the child."

"I know nothing but war", I said despondently.

"Then learn", said the man called Talon. "You are much too valuable as a leader for me to let you go completely, but if you swear to me, I promise, that you will choose your own destiny."

"Choose my own destiny", I said wonderingly.

"Believe me, It's not as simple as it sounds," said Talon, with a bit of a smile.

"And if you think that this is not important. Understand that Mab allowed you to survive", Cheyanne said. " Do you really believe you would have otherwise?"

At that moment, the Jade Court lady Lauren entered the room. With a pensive expression on her face, she walked to me, and took my hand.

I swear to you, that for the first time I felt real fear. Let me explain. When all your life you have no hope. No possibility for a future that doesn't end up with your horribly mangled corpse lying in a ditch. No hope of reprieve, no hope of redemption. You literally become a monster, with nothing to lose.

That had suddenly changed.

"Come husband, it is time for us to go".

"How do you know", I said simply.

Gently placing her had on my chest, she bent down to kiss me. Placing her hand on my throat, she powerfully squeezed, strangled me. "Because otherwise, I'll kill you", she said dispassionately.

Christ. I Had a hard on….


End file.
